This invention relates generally to task scheduling and, more specifically, relates to thermal- and spatial-aware task scheduling.
This section is intended to provide a background or context to the invention disclosed below. The description herein may include concepts that could be pursued, but are not necessarily ones that have been previously conceived, implemented or described. Therefore, unless otherwise explicitly indicated herein, what is described in this section is not prior art to the description in this application and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
The increasing demand for faster computing has resulted in an increase in central processing unit (CPU) power density and heat generation. The cooling cost for removing the heat also increases at the same rate as power density and heat generation. The heat generated by a core is mainly transferred through conduction to a heat-sink or other cooling means, usually attached to the backside of the CPU chip. As the heat from the core travels through the body of the semiconductor to the backside of the chip where the heat is removed, it also spreads outwards in the plane of the body. As a result, the thermal image of the core at the heat-sink is enlarged. Adjacent cores may have overlapped images which results in an increase in the maximum die temperatures. This in turn may degrade the performance and lifetime of the CPU.